O
I pray with all my heart to God on high,
To visit misfortune and calamity on John Bull.
Who drove us in herds of hundreds over the seas,
And set me to wander from my fair haired boy
It was the playing of Tony Mac Mahon that drove me to learn this song of exile.
Musicians will often say that they learned a slow air from the singing
of such a singer. Many great exponents of slow airs such as Willie Clancy
and Séamus Ennis said you couldn’t play a slow air without
understanding the song. However the song can come full circle and pass
from musician to singer. It was Mac Mahon’s sensuous grasp of the
emotion in this air that attracted me to it and it is this same feeling
that runs through my mind when I sing it.
Words
Tá mo
chroíse go tláth lag, i lár mo chuid saothair,
Tagann lántocht i m’ chléibhse, cé nár mhéin
liom é rá
Tá an díbirt i ndán dom ó bhánbheannaibh Éireann
Is fánach mo shaolsa is is déarach mo chás
Is chuimhin liom an tráth úd, a ghrá ghil na n-ae istigh
Thugas grá searc is géilleadh do do chaomhroisc thar cách.
A rí ghil na nÁrann, dob fhearr liom go n-éagfainn
I láthair mo ghaolta is mo Bhuachaillín Bháin
Tá críoch
inis Fáilbhe go lán fada i ndaorbhroid
Go cráite, go céasta, i ngéibheann na namhad
Nó an fíor nach foláir duit go brách bheith go
déarach
A oileáin bhig mhaorga, na naomh is na mbard
Ó gúimse go hard ar an ard athair Naofa
Chun ár is léirscrios a dhéanamh ar Sheán
Do dhíbir na táinte thar sáile ina gcéadta
Is chuir fán orm féinig ó mo Bhuachailín Bán
:Lorcán
Mac Mathúna Taken from the Sleeve notes
of "Rógaire Dubh" the Album
